IQ
The Road of Bones

Well, I have always liked the band IQ better than the IQ for Intelligence Quotient but just for the fun of it I found a free IQ-test that works like the regular Mensa test just to see where I am at today at it read: Your IQ score lies within a range of 133 up to 149, or it may be even higher! Silly numbers as usual as they don’t really say anything about intelligence just about how well I can see connections between symbols which is something I am very good at. If the British progressive rock band IQ is good at connecting symbols is another question for another day, they are very good at connecting musical phrasings. This we have been able to hear from several albums now, maybe mostly so on the brilliant 2004 album called Dark Matter. This is their tenth album and it offers five tracks playing for around 54 minutes.

It is typical IQ, meaning fairly typical british progressive rock. They do not reinvent progressive rock music but they do stand on their own legs and they have their own sound. This album is a tad darker than some and darker than their previous outing. It has some exciting structures and the variation over the tracks i very large much as we have come to expect from this kind of music and this band. Long tracks is another thing but they tend to flow freely and well, the production is impressive as well. At times cinematic. I do not think you need to be very intelligent to appreciate this album, but you can appreciate the musical intelligence behind it. I guess you could claim that the musical IQ of this band is fairly high and if there was a musical Mensa they would be eligible to join.

All this IQ-talk means that this album is a very intelligent one, it offers fascinating and clever music, it also offers brilliant music that is very enjoyable. I really like this album, there is no other way to put it. It stands very tall and holds a prime position in the discography of IQ, to me it is one of their top albums and it is also one of the real top albums of this year so far. Sure it might require some time to really get into but it easily stands up to very prolonged scrutiny as you will keep discovering new and fascinating stuff every time you listen to the album. It is simply a very enjoyable album.

If I were to pick out standout songs or moments I would say that the most of those are found in the brilliant title track. Not that any of the other four tracks are dull but there are some really special stuff in this title track. It wouldn’t be surprising if these guys do well in IQ-puzzles and such things as they sure has some clever and thought provoking stuff going on in this album, and it is one of those albums that I believe a thinking person will find very enjoyable. I know I am and I think a lot (not about interesting things though). Which means that Road of Bones is an impressive album, probably the most intelligent one of 2014 and quite possibly the best of that year so far as well.

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